Issue 4, 2012

Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells based on an iodine-free electrolyte using l-cysteine/l-cystine as a redox couple

Abstract

A new iodine-free electrolyte based on amino acids L-cysteine/L-cystine as a redox couple has been designed and synthesized. DSSCs fabricated with the conventional I/I3 redox couple gave efficiencies of 8.1% and 6.3% under optimized experimental conditions based on ruthenium dye, N719, and metal-free organic dye, TH202, respectively. Based on the same dyes, the DSSCs employing the new L-cysteine/L-cystine redox couple showed comparable efficiencies of 7.7% and 5.6%, respectively. However, higher incident-photon-to-electron (IPCE) conversion efficiencies and larger Jsc values were found for devices with the L-cysteine/L-cystine redox couple than with I/I3. From an electrochemical impedance spectroscopic study, we found that the charge recombination between the conduction band electrons in the TiO2 film and the electrolyte containing the L-cysteine/L-cystine redox couple is restrained.

Graphical abstract: Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells based on an iodine-free electrolyte using l-cysteine/l-cystine as a redox couple

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
01 Sep 2011
Accepted
08 Nov 2011
First published
01 Dec 2011

Energy Environ. Sci., 2012,5, 6290-6293

Efficient dye-sensitized solar cells based on an iodine-free electrolyte using L-cysteine/L-cystine as a redox couple

M. Cheng, X. Yang, S. Li, X. Wang and L. Sun, Energy Environ. Sci., 2012, 5, 6290 DOI: 10.1039/C1EE02540F

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